Hanover police said glasses of beer, chairs and other bits of furniture were thrown about as a fight broke out between Portsmouth fans in the Jack the Ripper London Tavern in Hanover. Ella Krebs, manager of the English-themed pub, said the fight kicked off without warning.

'There was a big fight. They pretty much did the place over,' she said.

'They did a good job of wrecking the pub. They broke hundreds of glasses, threw bar stools around and even smashed all the bottles of vinegar and ketchup on the tables.

'One moment everything seemed well and the next it just went off.

'There was about 20 or 30 lads and a good few more who didn't manage to get out of the way soon enough.'

Ms Krebs said all the people involved were Portsmouth fans: 'There were some who said they were from Gosport and others from Portsmouth,' she said. 'It appears that it started off between those two groups but I don't know who started it. I never want to see anything like that ever again. We have had loads of football fans in here over the years and never had any problem.

'We had a good reputation in the town until last night and now it's ruined so I'm taking it quite personally. It just seemed to be two large groups of lads that have ruined it for everyone else because the people that have come here drinking today have been great and really well behaved.'

A statement from Hanover police said they arrested eight men after being called to the pub about 10pm on Wednesday. The police responded quickly and discovered that the fighting was already over, and took the particulars of the suspected participants,' the statement said.

'Witness reports spoke of beer glasses, chairs and other objects being thrown at opponents.

'The first reports concentrated on eight British citizens aged between 17 and 45, who were alleged to have started the fighting. Since all of them were clearly drunk, they were taken into police custody overnight and released in the morning.'

Two men, aged 19 and 26, were treated for minor injuries but did not have to go to hospital, police said.

One Pompey fan who was in the bar earlier in the evening said: 'I didn't see it but I could tell it was going to kick off.

'It was the kind of place where something was going to happen, there was tension in the air and there were too many people in there.

'It was strange because walking through the town there was no hint of trouble anywhere else except there.'